Hiking The Price Of Chicago’s City Sticker Has Been A Disaster For Low-Income People

In 2011, a newly elected Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with his city council to negotiate Chicago’s 2012 budget. It was during these negotiations — and with the intervention of then-City Clerk Susana Mendoza — that the council increased the cost and penalty of what was already one of the priciest tickets in town: the city’s vehicle sticker.

A WBEZ-ProPublica investigation found that not only did the increase not bring in the projected additional revenue, but it also drove many low-income drivers into debt — even bankruptcy.

Morning Shift talks to WBEZ digital editor Elliott Ramos and ProPublica Illinois reporter Melissa Sanchez for part two of this investigation, and look at how the city got to this point.